“Welcome to the party, pal.” Action movies have been thrilling audiences for decades with electrifying moments where the raw power of stunts, fights, and chases reigns supreme. This list of the 100 Greatest Action Movies of All Time is a tribute to the genre’s unrelenting intensity and jaw-dropping spectacle. From skyscraper showdowns to breakneck car pursuits to choreographed mayhem, these movies are built on adrenaline and one-liners to keep you glued to the edge of your seat with every heart-stopping second
What sets these films apart is their commitment to action as the main event. Whether it’s a lone hero defying impossible odds or a team tearing through a battlefield of explosions, these movies deliver the kind of high-energy excitement that defines the genre. Get ready for a countdown of the best action cinema has to offer, where action junkies live by only one motto and that is “Get to the Choppa!!!” No wait, here it is, “For me, the action is the juice.”
These are the 100 Greatest Action Movies of All Time.
20. The Dark Knight (2008)
The highly anticipated sequel to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins isn’t just one of the greatest action films of all time — it might also be the greatest comic book movie and sequel ever made. The Dark Knight builds seamlessly on the foundation of the first film, raises the stakes with a villain for the ages, and delivers explosive set pieces balanced by a surprisingly thoughtful narrative. What sets it apart is how it never sacrifices story for spectacle, or vice versa — it’s that rare blockbuster that fully satisfies both the thinking audience and those just there for a bit of fun.
Famously snubbed for Best Picture and Best Director (an omission that helped push the Academy to expand the Best Picture category), The Dark Knight was nominated for eight Oscars, winning two. Heath Ledger’s Joker remains iconic — and, frankly, still outshines all other takes on the infamous villain — a masterclass in performance and menace. The Dark Knight is a modern classic that continues to inspire every superhero film that came after… whether they choose to admit to it or not.
–Thomas Riest
19. Speed (1994)
“Pop quiz, hot shot!” For years, studios had been chasing the next big action gimmick since Die Hard, and who would have thought it would be as simple as a bomb on a bus that can’t go below 55 MPH or else it explodes? This premise lends itself to some exhilarating action sequences and dramatic intrigue that make up one of the biggest summer blockbusters ever.
Add in the palpable chemistry from co-stars Keanu Reeves and breakout star Sandra Bullock with some of the most heart-pounding action sequences ever filmed, and you have yourself a white-knuckle thrill ride like no other. You know your movie is something special when movies that come after are described as “Speed on an airplane” or “Speed on a train”.
–Vincent Kane
18. Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
The master of pastiche’s ultimate exercise in mixing his clashing influences into something remains fresh and inventive. None of it should work, and yet it does because Quentin Tarantino is such a lunatic that he can pull it all together. Spaghetti westerns meet samurai classics; anime is combined with kung-fu classics. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is easily one of the coolest movies ever made. Uma Thurman is incredibly magnetic in the lead role as The Bride. Every fight is better than the next. The crazy 88s scene is a manic, bloody mess that is among Tarantino’s most brilliant moments as a filmmaker. Fun aside: I accidentally ate at the Tokyo restaurant that inspired the set for that scene, and it was awesome.
–Raf Stitt
17. Enter the Dragon (1973)
While The Chinese Boxer kick-started the kung fu genre, I’d argue Enter the Dragon is far more influential in the sense that it’s the one that elevated martial arts cinema to mainstream popularity. The film blends Eastern martial arts philosophy with Western action tropes, creating a global phenomenon whose influence can still be seen today.
Bruce Lee’s charisma, physical prowess, and philosophical presence dominate the film. His fluid yet explosive fighting style, combined with moments of contemplative intensity, makes his screen presence magnetic. Enter the Dragon not only introduced Lee to a global audience but also established a template for martial arts heroes: stoic, skilled, and morally centered. There were martial artists before him and imitators that came after, but none have captured his undeniable aura. The film’s influence spans decades: from inspiring a wave of kung fu movies in the 70s to shaping video games like Mortal Kombat and characters like Liu Kang. The mirror-room climax has been homaged countless times in cinema and television.
Even today, Enter the Dragon is cited by filmmakers, athletes, and philosophers alike as a cultural touchstone. Enter the Dragon is more than a martial arts movie—it’s a cultural landmark. Half a century later, its legacy remains untouchable: a powerful fusion of action, philosophy, and charisma that changed the landscape of film forever.
–Sailor Monsoon
16. Point Break (1991)
In my eyes, this is Keanu’s best action movie from the ’90s. I mean, the premise alone is worth rewatching time and time again: surfers moonlighting as a group of bank robbers known as the Ex-Presidents, and their leader is Patrick Swayze?! Add in that James Cameron worked on the screenplay, Kathryn Bigelow directed it, and Keanu is paired with Gary Busey, and you have a winning formula that screams totally ’90s.
Before Tom Cruise began risking his life for the Mission: Impossible movies, there was Swayze, who refused to use a stunt double for the surfing and skydiving scenes. It’s no wonder that those scenes are some of the most thrilling in the movie, allowing the audience to get as caught up in Bodhi’s world as Johnny Utah has found himself in. With more than one great shootout, and an ending that rivals any “rosebud,” Point Break isn’t just a great action movie, it’s a damn great movie, period.
–Marmaduke Karlston
15. Total Recall (1990)
On the surface, Total Recall is your typical action movie. Big beefy main character? Check. Explosions? Check. Lots of guns? Obviously. If you look a little closer, you find an intricately woven story that does a surprisingly good job of blending violence, science fiction, a dystopian future setting, and some of the worst and best aspects of human nature. It also helps that the Mars setting is gritty and palpable, and the actors all do a top notch job.
The year is 2084, and our hero is Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Or is he? Quaid is a construction worker on Earth who keeps having dreams (maybe nightmares is more accurate) about Mars and a mysterious brunette woman. In this future, the colony on Mars is one of the most believable things in the movie. Of course if we colonized Mars, there’d end up being one power hungry, rich asshole in charge of it, stripping the planet of its natural resources and oppressing colonists. In Total Recall, that guy is Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox),
Back to Quaid, though. Despite the objections of his wife (Sharon Stone), he visits Rekall — a virtual travel agency that implants memories of vacations rather than actually sending you places. During the process of implanting a mission to Mars as a secret agent, Quaid snaps. He realizes that he is some kind of secret agent, that his true memories have been erased, and that his former employers are out to get him. Or is he? We spend the rest of the movie trying to sort out what’s real, what’s a fake memory, and whether Quaid is still just sitting in a chair at Rekall, living in the adventure playing out in his mind. The rest of the story is a wild ride as Quaid evades capture by Cohaagen’s goons, finds his brunette love interest, helps the rebellion on Mars, and unlocks the key to giving the planet a livable atmosphere.
–R.J. Mathews
14. RoboCop (1987)
A dystopian future, questions of identity and what it means to be human, the effect of memory on personality, free will vs determinism – these are themes that other sci-fi films like Blade Runner address with subtlety. Robocop addresses them head-on while adding gore, corporate fascism, militarized police, jabs at consumerism and pop culture (“I’ll buy that for a dollar!”) and plenty of cathartic ultra-violence.
Murphy (Peter Weller), a Detroit cop, is brutally murdered by a gang of thugs. His remains are used to create a new breed of law enforcement – the Robocop. While the project responsible for his creation is really only interested in programming the leftovers it becomes apparent that something is wrong with their creation. He may be remembering who he was. Murphy’s memories – fleeting and disjointed – might as well be recovered or implanted, like those in another Verhoeven film, Total Recall. His wife, his kids – none of that is accessible to him anymore. They’re as gone as if they never really existed, all that’s left is their influence on who Murphy is, and who he wants to be.
Is Robocop Murphy? Or is he a machine that remembers being Murphy? Is that question too esoteric for you? Then don’t worry, this is a Paul Verhoeven film after all and there will be plenty of shootouts, explosions, huge killer robots and gore to distract you. Maybe you can ponder deeper questions after that guy gets liquefied across the hood of that car. So cool. So gross.
–Bob Cram
13. Seven Samurai (1954)
Don’t let a runtime of over 3 hours put you off watching Seven Samurai. It’s an utterly engrossing masterpiece, with zero padding, and it feels more like 30 minutes of your time as opposed to 3 hours. There are fascinating characters, stunning visuals, and some iconic moments. But more importantly for this list, a selection of blisteringly good action set pieces. It’s so good, I wish there were another 3 hours to watch.
–Lee McCutcheon
12. The Terminator (1984)
The Terminator is as merciless as it’s antagonist, a relentless thrill ride of a movie. All B-movie energy with A-movie special effects, I’m actually reminded of Godzilla Minus One – how a talented director and crew showed the big boys how to make an amazing spectacle with a shoestring budget. Nobody expected The Terminator to become a huge hit, even Arnold Schwarzenegger thought it was going to be a trash film nobody would remember. Oh, but we remember it. Once Arnold arrives, naked, in that alleyway, we’re all sucked in to a story about time travel, AI overlords and robots from the future out to kill the savior of humanity. The Terminator was the sci-fi equivelent of a slasher flick, with an unstoppable killer out to off a final girl, but elevated with fantastic action and mind-blowing set pieces. I loved every second of it. This was one of a handful of films that I watched so much that I wore out the videotape it was on. While Terminator 2 is a more fun film, this was absolutely perfect and never really needed a sequel. It cemented Arnold as an action movie star and made James Cameron the next big thing in directors. (Without Terminator, there’s no way his Aliens gets greenlit.) I kinda wish I could go back in time so I could see it on the big screen, with an audience that has no idea what’s coming.
–Bob Cram
11. Aliens (1986)
Make Alien a war movie. That was the genius idea that James Cameron had for a sequel. Make Ripley, the only survivor of the Nostromo, into an action hero. Add a kid. Make the andriod a good guy. Oh, and instead of one alien make it thousands. Everything about Aliens is turned up to 11, with bigger ships, bigger guns, bigger stakes and bigger aliens. It looks like it was make for a $100 million, when it was made for under $20 million. Aliens became a worldwide phenomenon, launching Cameron as a superstar movie director, giving star Sigourney Weaver her first Best Actress nomination, and cementing a franchise that continues to generate big-budget releases to this day. Military badasses running into a threat the absolutely canno handle is a tried and true action movie trope, and Cameron makes that trope freakin’ SING. With a ton of great characters, stellar special effects and some of the greatest action movie moments ever (I remember the crowd cheering their asses off when Ripley showed up that power loader), Aliens is a stone-cold classic of any genre.
–Bob Cram
10. First Blood (1982)
The pop culture image of Rambo is so tied up in the sequels that it’s easy to overlook the fact that First Blood is a completely different animal than every single one of its sequels. It has a lot in common with the Rocky franchise in that regard. It’s an action movie, but it’s an action movie with something to say.
As a kid, the action and Rambo’s seemingly invincible nature brought me back to First Blood again and again. As an adult, the melancholy tone director Ted Kocheff establishes from the beginning, Andrew Laszlo’s sweeping cinematography, and the pathos Stallone brings to what could easily have been a one-note character make First Blood a yearly rewatch for me.
The first Rambo movie may have been a violent action film for its time, but it’s one of the best examples in the genre that is not only perfectly paced but also underpins its action with real human drama. First Blood avoids simple caricatures and succeeds in saying something important and timely about the post-Vietnam War era.
–William Dhalgren
9. The Raid: Redemption (2011)
The Raid: Redemption is an action film fan’s dream. It only just sets up its main characters when it thrusts them into a terrifying scenario, following a group of police officers tasked with taking down a crime lord in a 30-storey building he controls with an iron fist. It uses its environment to perfection, where tight spaces become vibrant playgrounds for brutal violence. The everyday terrain of stairs, small rooms, and windows overlooking sheer drops are all used to its full extent.
Oftentimes being filmed using handheld cameras, The Raid’s action is incredibly immersive, with extended fight scenes that blend the gritty realism of shootouts with the back-and-forth brutality of hand-to-hand combat. The specific fight style incorporated in the film, Silat Harimau, embodies this cocktail of violence, grounding this blood-drenched action film in The Raid‘s native country of Indonesia.
–Cian McGrath
8. Hard Boiled (1992)
Few directors understand what works for their aesthetic, sensibilities, and cinematic language like John Woo does. When you watch a John Woo movie, you know it. Hard Boiled is easily one of the best things he’s done. I had the pleasure of catching a 35mm print screening of this at the Paris Theater in New York City, which was the ideal way to experience this. The crowd was loving it. Hooting and hollering as we watched Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung grace the screen with their endless swag. Some of the shootouts will leave your jaw on the floor – in the absolute best way possible.
–Raf Stitt
7. The Road Warrior (1981)
Don’t let the ranking here fool you: The Road Warrior is the best Mad Max film there is. It’s got great action, great performances, great stunts, a great setting, great villains, the best version of Max, the best vehicles, the best chases, the best actors, the best sidekick, the best sidekick vehicle, the best cinematography, the best score, the best costumes, the best story, and the best ending. It’s not even close.
The Road Warrior perfectly blends near-future sci-fi realism with relentless action. It dresses its characters up in football pads and tight leathers and mohawks, and it does it all with a straight face.
It’s all over the top, but George Miller never gives us a reason to believe this world isn’t real, and he doesn’t let his ambition force the film into the realm of the ridiculous. And he never loses sight of the fact that this is a Mad Max film.
–William Dhalgren
6. Predator (1987)
I’m willing to put money on this being one of the most quotable action movies of all time: “I ain’t got time to bleed,” “Stick around,” “Turn around,” “If it bleeds, we can kill it,” and, of course, the immortal “Runnnn! Get to da choppaaaahhh!!”
Predator also boasts intelligent direction from the underrated John McTiernan. The fact that there is a claustrophobic feel to a film set outside in the jungle is amazing. A memorable score courtesy of composer Alan Silvestri, and universally strong performances from its cast of muscle-bound 1980s actor stars, led by Arnie himself.
Lastly, there is the title character itself, a massive extra-terrestrial with dreadlocks and an arsenal of hi-tech weapons and cloaking devices. Designed by FX wizard Stan Winston, the predator remains a genuinely menacing presence all these years later, despite the endless slew of sub-par sequels and lazy spin-offs.
–Vincent Kane
5. The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix was a groundbreaking cinematic accomplishment on its release. But unlike other trendsetting films of their time, everything about it holds up today. The martial arts, wirework, and special effects still look amazing. In particular, the iconic bullet time technique has often been imitated, never bettered. Many of the action scenes featured the trademark complexity of Hong Kong cinema, never seen by many Western moviegoers. It’s a shame the sequels couldn’t live up to the first movie, but The Matrix is easily watchable as a standalone, and will go down as one of the greatest action movies ever made.
–Lee McCutcheon
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
I really had no interest in seeing a movie about an archaeologist trying to find an artifact before other people do, which was set in the 1930s. I mean, that sounds boring as hell, doesn’t it? It sure did in 1981. Somehow, that dull-as-dishwater premise turned out to be one of the greatest action movies of all time, an alchemical mystery of elements that launched a series and a whole genre – I mean, I don’t think you get games like Tomb Raider without Raiders. I loved this movie so much I literally watched it dozens of times. Maybe a hundred. Hell, I read the comic book adaptation to tatters when I couldn’t watch it. I even drew a crappy comic book version when I was a kid. Harrison Ford created yet another iconic character when I thought I’d never see him as anyone but Han Solo. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were the ultimate blockbuster movie dream team. The ultimate adventure movie, for me, with indelible characters, unforgettable action set pieces, and a soundtrack by John Williams that powered a thousand backyard adventures. This might not be the number one action movie in this list, but it absolutely is number one in my heart.
–Bob Cram
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
My love for this film mirrors my journey with another entry on this list (see Top Gun: Maverick at #43): a sequel gets announced, I scoff, and ask, “Why!? After all these years, why return to a dusty relic of the ’80s?” Then again, I’d never even seen the originals, so who was I to judge? But then the trailer dropped – a vision of pure cinematic madness — and suddenly I was curious. Then it premiered at Cannes to rave reviews, and I was in.
At once, I was floored by the bold, stripped-back storytelling. It’s essentially one long chase scene… but what a chase! The visuals are bonkers, the world is grotesque, and the practical stunts are jaw-dropping. I loved it so much I dragged my brother and cousin to a late-night screening (both skeptics), and they walked out believers.
It shouldn’t work. But it does. Spectacularly! Fury Road was my pick for Best Picture in 2016 — it didn’t win, but it walked away with six Oscars (the most of the night) and the admiration of anyone brave enough to ride into the Wasteland.
–Thomas Riest
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
For as good as The Terminator was, the sequel turned the action up to 11, delivering two of the most badass action heroes ever on screen with a villain to match. While Sarah Connor had to play the part of a woman on the run in the first movie, she gets to transform in this into a fully-fledged, hardened action star, and we get Arnold Schwarzenegger back on the side of the heroes to boot.
Meanwhile, the T-1000 must have absolutely blown minds in 1991, pushing the bounds of special effects with its Liquid Metal premise that still holds up today. Those effects make for incredibly action set pieces as the T-1000 can shapeshift and use its abilities to form gnarly metal weapons.
Judgment Day is also one of the most quotable action films of all time with Arnold’s iconic lines: “I’ll be back,” “Hasta la vista, baby,” and “Come with me if you want to live.”
–Jacob Holmes
1. Die Hard (1988)
“Yippee-Ki-Yay, motherf*cker!” Was there ever any doubt that Die Hard would reign supreme as the greatest action film of all time here at the Wasteland? I still remember the first time I watched it, completely unprepared for the adrenaline rollercoaster I was about to experience. As the movie raced toward its conclusion, I found myself pacing the floor from sheer nerves, uncertain of how it would end, even though I knew the good guy would come out on top.
Die Hard didn’t just entertain; it reshaped the action genre by weaving together tension, sharp dialogue, and unexpected humor into something destined to become a classic. In an era of invincible heroes, John McClane emerged as a vulnerable and scrappy everyman, played with working-class charm by Bruce Willis. He bleeds, he panics, and he must improvise his way through a deadly hostage situation, risking his life and the lives of others.
One of the film’s most brilliant decisions was keeping the story largely contained to a single location. Nakatomi Plaza becomes a pressure cooker, a steel-and-glass battleground that traps everyone inside the conflict and cranks the suspense up to almost unbearable levels. And the cherry on top? The villain. Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber is the kind of villain you love to hate, and hate to love. He oozes charisma and always seems to be one step ahead, leading to a dynamic showdown with McClane. It’s a rarity to find an action movie where everything works and blends so perfectly, but this movie managed to do it.
Die Hard is an untouchable classic and infinitely rewatchable at any time of year (but especially Christmas).
–Romona Comet
40-21 | Action Heroes
What are some of your favorite action movies? Maybe they will show up later in the list!